WILLIAM Wordsworth is one of the greatest English poets and being an outdoor man I have always enjoyed his work.  The Daffodils evoke the very spirit of the Lake District where he lived and worked for most of his life.  The Prelude is his autobiography in verse.  He was also one of the earliest of Lakeland’s protectors.

I recently visited his childhood home at Cockermouth in Cumbria.  The house on Main Street, in which John and Anne Wordsworth brought up their three sons and a daughter, has been recreated by the National Trust.

Funding from various sources, including the Heritage Lottery Fund has enabled the trust to reproduce everyday life during the 1770s.

The fully replicated and working 18th Century kitchen is at the heart of Wordsworth House. It was from here that Anne Wordsworth ran the home, doing all the cooking herself with the help of a single maid.

Cockermouth people bought the house and presented it to the National Trust to save it from demolition during the 1930s.

John Wordsworth was the local agent for one of Britain’s richest and most influential men, Sir James Lowther.  He installed Wordsworth in the big town house to handle his business interests in Cumbria.

It was a far grander house than the Wordsworths were used and their rooms were sparsely and modestly furnished.  However some of the rooms were comfortably by Sir James for use when he was wheeling and dealing with the local dignitaries.

The Wordsworths lost their home following the death of Anne in 1778 and John in 1783.  Their children were farmed out to local relations.  Even their prized possession, a Wilton carpet had to be auctioned.

Now experts have completely restored the building.  It has an authentic deco that would have been familiar to Wordsworth.  The furniture has been recreated using traditional techniques and materials by local cabinet makers, Peter Hall and Son.  Even their prized Wilton carpet has been rewoven.

New rooms are constantly being opened.  Among the first were William’s bedroom with his clothes and toys scattered around and John’s office.

Tourists are able to watch the Wordsworth’s servants go about their duties and even chat to the costumed staff

“It is through Wordsworth’s influence that much of our countryside was protected from development.  Effectively, he was one of the founders of the conservation movement,” said Kate Hilton, the Wordsworth House Curator.  “We believed the house needed new life breathed into it.  We felt that we weren’t portraying the way that William lived as a child and came up with the idea of creating a working living Georgian house to give visitors an insight into life in the 1770s.

“We have recreated the lives of the Wordsworth children in such detail that visitors will be able to feel like the family must have done in the house at that time in history.  We can see how important William’s childhood was to him later as a poet.”

I am grateful for the life of William Wordsworth.  It is not just his wonderful poetry.  He helped to safe the Lake District and other wild places in which I have spent so much time, walking, cycling, riding, climbing, skiing and generally just enjoying myself.